Obama’s Virtual Town Hall – I
March 27, 2009 by Jerry
In January and March, I wrote about President Obama’s artful use of the word “you,” the most persuasive word in the language—according to a purported Yale University study. Purported or not, “you” is an essential element in any communication, because it implies the “co-” in “communication,” the two-way exchange that is necessary for results to take place.
Those earlier posts traced the president’s use of “you” throughout his campaign, in his Inaugural Address, and in his first address to congress. Yesterday, in his first ever (for any president) internet town hall meeting, Barack Obama was back at it. He kicked off the session with a prepared statement, “Here in Washington, politics all too often is treated like a game. There’s a lot of point scoring, a lot of talk about who’s up and who’s down. A lot of time and energy spent on whether the President is winning or losing, on this particular day or this particular hour. But this isn’t about me. It’s about you.”
That moment represents the ultimate melding of message, messenger, and audience; a direct effort on the part of the president to connect directly with the American people. Two days before the web event, Obama held a traditional press conference in the White House for professional reporters who were there as representatives of their readers, the public. (In fact, the 13 reporters Obama called upon were from a more diverse set of set of media outlets than from the usual major chains.) But in the web event, the president fielded questions from the citizens themselves, and answered them directly, live and in person. There was no filtering, no tape delay, no spokesperson, and so, no chance for evasion.
Obama kept the “co-” in “communication.” At the outset, he said, “When I was running for President, I promised to open up the White House to the American people. And this event, which is being streamed live over the Internet, marks an important step towards achieving that goal.”
In our next post, you’ll read more about how the president handled the questions in that virtual town hall.
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Jerry,
I’m reading your book, “The Power Presenter” and see in Chapter 1 your reference to the Mehrabian study which states that 55% of our communication is body language. What I read, above, was President Obama’s skillful use of the word “you:” to connect with the audience, which leads me to believe that words are, indeed, quite important. How do you respond to people (especially Engineers, with whom I work) that words aren’t as important as body language. Yet, the then Senator Obama’s skillful use of the word “you” helped him win over Senator Clinton. If we say that his skillful you of language, (and, I would note that former Pres Clinton and Reagan also used words skillfully), it sounds like words are indeed powerful and play a larger role than 7% in our communication.
Appreciate your response.
Thank you for your thoughtful comment, Susan
Please think of all these dynamics as messenger and message. It is important to place an equal amount of emphasis on both sides of the equation; as much on the messenger—and his or her body language and voice—as on the message. Also look at Figure 2.2 on page 25. Every presentation should aspire to be in the upper right hand quadrant.
Jerry
Jerry:
I read your article in Bottom Line Secrets, and I appreciated your information on the use of antithesis, alliteration, anaphora and anecdotes. I appreciated especially the labels to those tools that I have often heard.
Is there another term used to describe the often used technique of restating a common phrase, with a few words interchanged, to create a new statement with an entirely different emphasis? I think Hillary Clinton uses this technique frequently.
I’m having a hard time coming up with an example, but it would resemble the following style: Let us not follow ———– , but let us ————-
thank you
Harold Kameya